minute and elaborate; statues of full size in niches aloft; small heads of
kings, no bigger than a doll; and the oak is carved in all parts of the
paneling as faithfully as they used to do it in Henry VII.'s time--as
faithfully and with as good workmanship, but with nothing like the variety
and invention which I saw in the dining-room of Smithell's Hall. There the
artist wrought with his heart and head; but much of this work, I suppose,
was done by machinery.

It is a most noble and splendid apartment, and, tho so fine, there is not
a touch of finery; it glistens and glows with even a somber magnificence,
owing to the deep, rich hues and the dim light, bedimmed with rich colors
by coming through the painted windows. In arched recesses, that serve as
frames, at each end of the hall, there are three pictures by modern
artists from English history; and tho it was not possible to see them well
as pictures, they adorned and enriched the walls marvelously as
architectural embellishments. The Peers' seats are four rows of long sofas
on each side, covered with red morocco; comfortable seats enough, but not
adapted to any other than a decorously exact position. The woolsack is
between these two divisions of sofas, in the middle passage of the
floor--a great square seat, covered with scarlet, and with a scarlet
cushion set up perpendicularly for the Chancellor to lean against. In
front of the woolsack there is another still larger ottoman, on which he
might lie at full length--for what purpose intended, I know not. I should
take the woolsack to be not a very comfortable seat, tho I suppose it was
originally designed to be the most comfortable one that could be
contrived.

The throne is the first object you see on entering the hall, being close
to the door; a chair of antique form, with a high, peaked back, and a
square canopy above, the whole richly carved and quite covered with